Australia news live: Dutton says RBA cutting interest rates would be ‘fantastic’ but not an endorsement of Labor policy

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has been speaking with reporters in Brisbane.

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Asked about tomorrow’s RBA interest rate decision, Dutton said he is hoping for a “25 point cut, or if it’s more than that, that’s fantastic.”

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If there is a rate cut, would this be an endorsement of Labor’s policies? Dutton rejected this and said no, it wouldn’t:

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n

The short answer is no. But interest rates have gone up 12 times under the prime minister’s watch.

n

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He accused Albanese of being “distracted right from the very start” of his term:

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n

He spent the first 16, 18 months of his term in parliament on the [Indigenous] voice [to parliament]. And it meant that he wasn’t concentrating on how to deal with inflation, how to deal with the decisions that needed to be made in the first couple of budgets. Instead, he was distracted by the voice and other issues and it’s just meant that interest rates have been higher for longer.

n

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Sticking with Jim Chalmers, he has been giving a press conference in Canberra.

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The treasurer was asked how confident he is Labor can win the election, no matter the outcome of tomorrow’s RBA rates decision? He responded:

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n

We know that this election will be really tight. It will be contested, and that’s as it should be. Elections in this country are typically very tight at the federal level, and I expect that to be the case once again.

n

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On the latest polling results, Chalmers said his focus is on “the numbers in the economy, not the numbers in the polls”.

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A 12-year-old boy has been bitten on the back by a tagged dingo at Kingfisher Bay, K’gari, in the fifth attack at the popular Queensland tourist destination this year.

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The boy was playing in shallow water near Yidney Rocks around 12.15pm on Sunday with another child and an adult when the male dingo approached him from behind.

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Nearby fishers ran to assist and attempted to deter the dingo with a stick, who subsequently moved away but followed the group back to their accommodation.

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The group were carrying a dingo stick but put it on nearby rocks before entering the water. The boy was treated by paramedics for superficial puncture wounds and a laceration. He did not require further treatment.

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When rangers attended the scene, the dingo was still in the area. Rangers have identified the dingo from photographs and provided safety information.

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The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) are investigating the incident.

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It follows another incident late in January, when a three-year-old girl was bitten by a dingo on K’gari while on a walk with her family at a beach near Kingfisher Bay.

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Continuing from our previous post: Another improvement was student-to-teacher ratios. There were 320,377 full-time equivalent teaching staff in 2024, a 2.8% rise on 2023.

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Cassandra Elliot said with a rise in the number of teaching staff, the average student-to-teacher ratio across Australian schools fell to a 2006 low of 12.9 students to one teacher.

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n

Independent schools had the lowest student-to-teacher ratios with 11.7 students to one teacher. Meanwhile, government and Catholic schools had 13.1 and 13.3 students to one teacher respectively.

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There were 4.1 million students enrolled across 9,653 schools in 2024, a 1.1% rise on the previous year.

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school student enrolments were up 3.7% on the previous year. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students now make up 6.6% of all school students.

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Nationals leader David Littleproud spoke with Sky News earlier about the prospect of a minority government, and the latest polling numbers out today.

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On the crossbench, he said there was “only very few that would be able to work constructively with the Coalition government.” Asked how many crossbenchers whose support they might be able to gain, he responded:

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n

You only have to look at the voting record of most of them, they vote with the Greens and the Labor party the majority of the time.

n

There are some eminently sensible ones there, I mean, Bob Katter has proved it before, so too has Rebecca Sharkey and Dai Le. And I think Allegra Spender has shown, probably of all the teals, the maturity that the others haven’t, in being able to work constructively and understand that it’s not always about trying to save the planet, it’s also about trying to save Australian’s wallets [that have] been bled dry by an ideology.

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More people are falling behind on their personal loan repayments, while mortgage arrears have steadied, according to Westpac’s quarterly update released today.

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Personal loans, which are sometimes taken out to consolidate debt, require much higher repayment rates than a typical home loan, and are often used by people already under financial pressure.

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Westpac’s figures show that personal loan delinquencies, representing those who have fallen more than 90 days behind in repayments, are near five-year highs, representing 2.83% of that part of its lending book.

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The equivalent delinquency rate for mortgages dropped during the last quarter from 1.12% to 1.03%.

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The banking sector has been reporting reduced rates of mortgage arrears, with some under-pressure homeowners able to direct last year’s stage-three tax cuts to staying solvent.

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Property agents are also reporting increased sales activity by stressed households, which wipes those arrears from lending books.

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Westpac reported a quarterly net profit, excluding large one-off expenses, of $1.9bn, up from $1.8bn a year ago.

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Earlier this morning, Nationals leader David Littleproud was up on ABC RN after Peter Dutton floated the idea of divestiture powers applying to the insurance industry.

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Asked if the policy had been approved by the joint party room, Littleproud instead took aim at Anthony Albanese and argued insurance premiums had gone up 19% since he came to power.

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n

If you’ve got the policy levers, why wouldn’t you look to make sure that everyone is doing what they should be, and … making sure that there’s deterrence for companies to make sure that they’re doing the right things? If they don’t, there is a penalty – and unfortunately, that’s why we had to act with the supermarkets.

n

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Asked why the didn’t the Coalition act on this when it was in power for a decade, Littleproud said it had put in place mitigation works.

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Drawn back to the original question on whether this policy was approved by the joint party room, Littleproud responded:

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n

It’s not a policy, what was announced. What Peter Dutton has said [is] we are prepared to use whatever policy lever we need to ensure that Australia’s cost of living, and consumers, are being treated fairly … I think it would be unfair to say that that was a policy announced by Peter Dutton.

n

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Victorian police say they have dismantled an organised crime syndicate that was allegedly involved in stealing six cryptocurrency ATMs and committing a series of burglaries at collector card stores.

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Detectives arrested four people over the past week as part of their investigation into alleged commercial burglaries. The ATM’s were allegedly stolen from businesses in Hoppers Crossing, Bentleigh, Brunswick, Werribee and Vermont.

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It will be alleged the group targeted three collectible card stores in Epping, Moonee Ponds and Eumemmerring, and detectives believe the group may have been using stolen cars.

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The investigation allegedly led to police uncovering a cave of items, including about $50,000 worth of collectible trading cards, including Pokémon, Disney Lorcana, Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic the Gathering, Dragon Ball Z, AFL and NBA.

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Police allege they also uncovered five stolen firearms, 100 stolen car keys, ammunition, a pill-press machine and stolen power tools.

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Four people have been arrested in total, including two alleged primary offenders – a 37-year-old man from Reservoir and a 32-year-old man from Epping – with both facing numerous charges including burglary.

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The two other men, a 33-year-old and a 46-year-old, both from Reservoir, were released pending further investigation.

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The shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, was on ABC News Breakfast earlier where she was questioned on comments from opposition leader Peter Dutton saying insurance was too expensive.

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He flagged a future Coalition government could break up some of the companies. Is that something you’re seriously going to do? Hume responded:

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n

I think it’s really important that we have competition in the insurance sector. There’s no doubt about that. That’s something that we would look at.

n

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She described insurance as “one of the great expenses that people have felt during this cost-of-living crisis”.

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n

Insurance premiums have gone up around 19%. That means that people make decisions to underinsure or not insure at all. That’s not a good thing. One of the pressures that we’ve seen on insurance is inflation itself, because of course when inflation goes up, things like building costs go up.

n

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The latest Newspoll published in The Australian newspaper shows the Coalition has a 51-49 lead over Labor in the two-party preferred stakes, AAP reports.

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Labor’s primary vote is languishing at 31, compared to the Coalition’s 38, the poll found. Some 53% of those surveyed believed the Albanese government did not deserve to be re-elected, while 34% were happy to give it another term.

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About 45% believed Anthony Albanese would be the better PM, compared with Peter Dutton’s 40%. The poll surveyed 1,244 voters nationally last week.

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Meanwhile, modelling from pollster YouGov projected the Coalition to win 73 seats at the election – putting Dutton in pole position to form government. Polls show voters consider Dutton a stronger leader on matters of law and order than Albanese, who voters consider the weakest party leader in decades.

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While these issues are Dutton’s strong suit, Redbridge polling published in News Corp papers on Sunday showed they are not the most pressing for voters. The cost of living was far and above the biggest concern, with 84% of respondents ranking it in their top three.

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Transport for NSW says the rail network is running “close to timetable” this morning with minimal delays and a smaller number of cancellations.

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But passengers are still being advised to plan ahead and allow extra travel time, with disruptions throughout the day flagged.

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197 Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink train drivers and guards did not report for their normal shifts as of 5am today, and this number could grow throughout the day. As a result, 335 services have been cancelled so far today.

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Across Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 1,525 train drivers and guards did not report for work, resulting in 3,935 services cancelled or delayed.

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Transport for NSW said the matter would be back in the Fair Work Commission for a full bench hearing on Wednesday.

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waiting at Sydney’s Central station amid industrial action last month”,”caption”:”Commuters waiting at Sydney’s Central station amid industrial action last month.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Graham Russell/The Guardian”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1739737014000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”15.16 EST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1739738216000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”15.36 EST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1739737524000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”15.25 EST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”15.25″,”title”:”Hundreds of train services cancelled across Sydney as transport disruption continues”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Sun 16 Feb 2025 21.14 EST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Sun 16 Feb 2025 15.16 EST”},{“id”:”67b246238f085b5f5c28da7d”,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Victoria is set to recruit a new police boss after the embattled chief resigned days after a majority of his workforce declared no confidence in his leadership.

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As AAP reports, chief commissioner Shane Patton said last night that he had advised the Victorian government he had decided to step away from the role “effective immediately”.

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It is with a heavy heart that I have made this decision, however I think it is the right one to allow fresh leadership in the role.

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After more than 45 years of serving the community with Victoria police, he had “utmost pride” in the organisation.

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Victoria’s emergency management commissioner, Rick Nugent, would step into the role “as soon as practicable” until a replacement was chosen, premier Jacinta Allan said in a statement yesterday. Deputy commissioner Wendy Steendam will lead the organisation temporarily.

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The state’s top cop had gone to ground since initially vowing to stay on after a union no-confidence vote was passed on Friday. Of the 14,571 Police Association members who took part in the online ballot, more than 12,600 – or 87% – did not have confidence he could lead and manage Victoria police in the future.

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at work in Melbourne”,”caption”:”Police at work in Melbourne. “,”credit”:”Photograph: Michael Currie/Speed Media/REX/Shutterstock”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1739737014000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”15.16 EST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1739737705000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”15.28 EST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1739737269000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”15.21 EST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”15.21″,”title”:”Victorian police commissioner quits after no-confidence vote”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Sun 16 Feb 2025 21.14 EST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Sun 16 Feb 2025 15.16 EST”},{“id”:”67b244458f085b5f5c28da67″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Good morning, and welcome back to a new week on the Australia news live blog. I’m Emily Wind and I’ll be taking you through our rolling coverage for most of today.

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As AAP reports, Victoria’s police commissioner Shane Patton has advised he would step away from the role “effective immediately”. He said last night:

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n

It is with a heavy heart that I have made this decision, however I think it is the right one to allow fresh leadership in the role.

n

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After more than 45 years of serving the community with Victoria police, Patton had “utmost pride” in the organisation. We’ll have more on this shortly.

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Meanwhile, chaos is continuing throughout the Sydney train network amid the rail unions’ ongoing standoff with the New South Wales government. Commuters are being advised to plan ahead and allow extra travel time today, with service disruptions already occurring.

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We’ll bring you updates throughout the day as the situation develops. You can read more on this below:

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As always, you can reach out with any tips, questions or feedback via email: emily.wind@theguardian.com. Let’s get started.

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NSW premier blasts rail union

Chris Minns has taken aim at the Rail, Tram and Bus Union as disruption continues across the Sydney Trains network. As AAP reports, the NSW premier said:

They think everybody in Sydney is stupid or that they’re getting away with it, when everyone’s on to them. We are on the side of commuters here.

The ongoing uncertainty around the train network is set to continue ahead of another Fair Work Commission hearing and opposition calls for the federal government to get involved. Minns said:

We are hopeful that the commission steps in at this point and ends this circus, but we’ll have a plan B and a plan C.

Disagreement over a previously undiscussed $4500 incentive payment, included in the previous agreement, caused negotiations to break down. Minns continued:

The government cannot give in to the union’s blackmail … it would only embolden them. I could solve this dispute this afternoon by handing over a blank cheque to the union and agreeing to their latest outrageous claims, but it wouldn’t solve it permanently.

Dutton calls out government for not releasing 2035 targets

Responding to the latest polls, Peter Dutton said “there’s a lot of fluctuation in them”. He took aim at Labor over energy policy, calling out the government for not releasing details of its 2035 targets:

The government’s got a 2035 target that they have modelled and they’re refusing to release it. If it’s good for consumers and good for our country, why not release the detail? I tell you why they don’t want to, because in it will be the assumptions around how much more electricity will go up if Mr Albanese is re-elected.

On the Coalition’s decision to scrap rebates, the opposition leader outlined the decision:

Say you give a family $300 but their electricity bill has gone up by $1,000, people are happy to take the money – but it means their interest rate is staying higher on their mortgage for longer. That’s what the Reserve Bank has warned about.

You can put out little amounts of money that people happily take and they’d be happy to take more because the costs of everything has gone up under Mr Albanese, but they all say no – Australians aren’t stupid. They know their power bills [have] gone up by $1,000.

Dutton puts insurance industry ‘on notice’ after flagging divestment powers

Speaking about insurance, after he yesterday flagged breaking up companies in the industry, Peter Dutton said:

I just put the insurance sector on notice right now – that when we win the election, I expect them to bring down insurance premiums significantly by the time we form a government. And if they don’t, then I will deal with the industry afterwards because we can’t have people who can’t afford to insure against public liability.

David Littleproud spoke about this earlier on ABC RN, saying Dutton’s announcement wasn’t a policy, after being asked if it had passed the joint party room.

Speaking just now, Dutton said “we had the policies in relation to a number of issues [and] I’m not going into internal processes”.

If we have a situation where people have been priced out of insurance or deemed an uninsurable risk when they shouldn’t be, that is a failure of the market and we’ll respond accordingly to that. We have done it in relation to supermarkets and we’ll speak with the insurance companies.

Dutton says RBA cutting interest rates would be ‘fantastic’ but not an endorsement of Labor policy

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has been speaking with reporters in Brisbane.

Asked about tomorrow’s RBA interest rate decision, Dutton said he is hoping for a “25 point cut, or if it’s more than that, that’s fantastic.”

If there is a rate cut, would this be an endorsement of Labor’s policies? Dutton rejected this and said no, it wouldn’t:

The short answer is no. But interest rates have gone up 12 times under the prime minister’s watch.

He accused Albanese of being “distracted right from the very start” of his term:

He spent the first 16, 18 months of his term in parliament on the [Indigenous] voice [to parliament]. And it meant that he wasn’t concentrating on how to deal with inflation, how to deal with the decisions that needed to be made in the first couple of budgets. Instead, he was distracted by the voice and other issues and it’s just meant that interest rates have been higher for longer.

Chalmers dismisses suggestion he would be next Labor leader if party loses election

Taking a final question, Jim Chalmers was asked if he would become the next Labor leader if Labor loses the federal election?

But the treasurer shot this down, saying “I’m not even thinking about that.”

100% of my time is spent putting together the budget, putting together our economic policies with our colleagues, working around the clock not just to see the return of the Albanese Labor government, but also to make sure that we can continue to make progress in the economy.

Chalmers on RBA decisions, March budget

Just jumping back to Jim Chalmers interview on Channel 7, he was asked whether speculation he has been privately telling MPs not to speculate on what the RBA may do is true?

The treasurer said he says “the same thing to my colleagues behind closed doors that I say publicly”.

I don’t predict or pre-empt those discussions that are underway right now. I say that to my colleagues as well. They will announce their decision in due course.

On the budget scheduled for March, and whether the government can commit to that at this stage, Chalmers said “that’s what we’re working towards.”

The final decision on the timing of the election will be up to the prime minister, as is always the case. But Katy Gallagher and I are working very hard with the expenditure review committee to put together that budget for March.

Chalmers says no major party has policy on breaking up insurers

The treasurer was also asked whether the government would consider divestment powers for the insurance industry to bring down premiums – as floated by Peter Dutton yesterday.

Nationals leader David Littleproud was asked about this today, and whether it passed the joint party room, but said it wasn’t a policy.

Asked about the prospect of breaking up insurers, Jim Chalmers told reporters just now that “no major party has a policy for that”.

We know because David Littleproud shafted the leader of his party this morning. So Peter Dutton’s so-called policy didn’t last 24 hours, and when you can’t get the National party over the line on something, then you’ve got a problem.

And so, whether it’s what Angus Taylor has said about this before, what Peter Dutton said yesterday or what David Littleproud said today, Peter Dutton’s so-called policy has already fallen down in a heap, just like his free lunches policy has as well.

He argued the Coalition still had “no costed, coherent or credible economic policies”.

Jim Chalmers said he wasn’t going to “apply a political lens to decisions taken by the Reserve Bank.”

They will take their decisions based on the economics, not the politics. And the respectful role that I will play in that is to not engage in a running commentary about their deliberations.

Chalmers addressing media in Canberra

Sticking with Jim Chalmers, he has been giving a press conference in Canberra.

The treasurer was asked how confident he is Labor can win the election, no matter the outcome of tomorrow’s RBA rates decision? He responded:

We know that this election will be really tight. It will be contested, and that’s as it should be. Elections in this country are typically very tight at the federal level, and I expect that to be the case once again.

On the latest polling results, Chalmers said his focus is on “the numbers in the economy, not the numbers in the polls”.

Chalmers avoids predicting outcome of RBA rates decision tomorrow

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has been speaking with Channel 7 ahead of tomorrow’s RBA interest rate decision – with a rate cut expected.

Chalmers said he didn’t want to “make predictions or pre-empt the discussions” occurring within the RBA board.

We’ll know tomorrow afternoon whether the independent Reserve Bank’s decided to cut interest rates or not. But I do accept your broader point, and that is that these cost-of-living pressures are pretty widespread … The cost of living has been the number one focus of this government, and that will continue to be the case no matter what the Reserve Bank decides independently tomorrow.

Another child bitten by dingo on K’gari

Caitlin Cassidy

A 12-year-old boy has been bitten on the back by a tagged dingo at Kingfisher Bay, K’gari, in the fifth attack at the popular Queensland tourist destination this year.

The boy was playing in shallow water near Yidney Rocks around 12.15pm on Sunday with another child and an adult when the male dingo approached him from behind.

Nearby fishers ran to assist and attempted to deter the dingo with a stick, who subsequently moved away but followed the group back to their accommodation.

The group were carrying a dingo stick but put it on nearby rocks before entering the water. The boy was treated by paramedics for superficial puncture wounds and a laceration. He did not require further treatment.

When rangers attended the scene, the dingo was still in the area. Rangers have identified the dingo from photographs and provided safety information.

The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) are investigating the incident.

It follows another incident late in January, when a three-year-old girl was bitten by a dingo on K’gari while on a walk with her family at a beach near Kingfisher Bay.

School student-to-teacher ratio at lowest point since 2006

Caitlin Cassidy

Continuing from our previous post: Another improvement was student-to-teacher ratios. There were 320,377 full-time equivalent teaching staff in 2024, a 2.8% rise on 2023.

Cassandra Elliot said with a rise in the number of teaching staff, the average student-to-teacher ratio across Australian schools fell to a 2006 low of 12.9 students to one teacher.

Independent schools had the lowest student-to-teacher ratios with 11.7 students to one teacher. Meanwhile, government and Catholic schools had 13.1 and 13.3 students to one teacher respectively.

There were 4.1 million students enrolled across 9,653 schools in 2024, a 1.1% rise on the previous year.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school student enrolments were up 3.7% on the previous year. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students now make up 6.6% of all school students.

Caitlin Cassidy

Proportion of students finishing year 12 rises

The proportion of students staying in school until year 12 has increased for the first time since 2017, new Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures show.

The ABS figures, released on Monday morning, show the proportion of students staying at school from year 7 until year 12 rose to 79.9% in 2024, up from 79.1% the previous year.

The proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students staying at school until year 12 also rose from 55.9% in 2023 to 56.7% in 2024.

Cassandra Elliott, ABS head of education statistics, said the overall growth was largely driven by students at government schools, which was up 1.3% to 74.3% in 2024.

This compared to a 0.9 percentage point rise to 88.1% for students at non-government schools.

Final submissions due in Tasmanian jumping castle tragedy

A court will hear final legal submissions in a case against the operator of a jumping castle at the centre of a tragedy that killed six primary school students, AAP reports.

Chace Harrison, Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones, Zane Mellor, Addison Stewart, Jye Sheehan and Peter Dodt died after the incident in Tasmania in December 2021.

Three other students were injured in the accident at Hillcrest primary school in Devonport, which made global headlines.

They were enjoying end-of-year celebrations on the school’s oval when a wind gust lifted the castle and several inflatable balls into the air.

Rosemary Gamble, who was charged in November 2023, has pleaded not guilty to one count of failure to comply with health and safety duty.

Lawyers on both sides of the case will make their final submissions on Monday, following a 10-day hearing in Devonport magistrates court in November.